OCCUPATION OF FRANCE

Nelson Evening Mail, 29 March 1916, Page 2

OCCUPATION OF FRANCE

;-•■;"■;--:*A- SIDELIGHT. 'M. Tr.epont, Prefect of the Northern Department; and- nine other hos'tage* were-released by: -the -Germans, and arrived in Paris on.Januai'y 19,.. and were received by the Homg and- the Minister of Justice at the Lyons station. M. Trepon-t thus describes his experiences: "I was first arrested in October, 1914, and then released, but in February the 'German authorities became unpleasant again, and endeavoured -to"compel me to obtain from, relatively still prosperous districts payments for a mined town which could'.not - ,'meeV.the fihes imposed upon them. I refused in a public letter, at the conclusion of which I said that,. representin-e---the-.French :lf-e»- J public, I would not- ,fail. to.-give a set : example of faith in my country. This "was too .muck; and oil 17' half a dozen Gei'maii- officers, with, a, German doctor, burst intoJ., hiy bedroom under ' the pretext of Inquiring after my f-;tato of health-: butitheiKV-fnainici*- was svch that I understood at once, and. "without .listening \to : Mie, doctor, got' up-and dressed. T wasconfined,,.in the. fortress of Lille on tlierincomprehensible charge? of 'offence and t)ieachery-' .On March 6 I was taken to. Eirson tort,(which is halt in. ruins, and.,shut- up in a damp room. Ten of us spent three months at Hirsori, shut up in the -same- room. In June I was taken to- Bosch hell Bastadt, -where I '.wds shufupwith com. mon .criminals. -All sorts-, of hardships were inflicted upon us, disgusting loud, invented news, ingeniously- imparted, to us, and absolutely secret confinement. I •was cut off from the outside world for six .months,. and. : \ye;passed .the time s-s '•best "we could, "Count de Forceville, for instance, translating- -'Tacitus,' while .1studied English." .-.'.--.■ -■ -